Discussion week 16 - Friday the 22nd and Sunday the 24th of July

Honeybees are needed all over the world for pollination of most plants. Without honeybees, the creatures of the world will surely perish.

But, people these days are overly scared of all kinds of bees, and upon finding a bee hive near their house, or near a park, their first idea is to kill all the bees, rather than rehouse them
somewhere safe.

Furthermore, with the increased demand for food all over the world, more farmers need a better harvest in order to supply enough food, and as such use pesticides on their crops to keep the
produce high. Many pesticides are also deadly to bees.

Places like china have had so many chemical pesticides used, that now in order for the farmers to grow -anything- in their soil, they need more chemicals in order to aid growth!

But, not only because of these reason, but also for other reasons, honeybees are dying very fast. If the honeybees are all gone, plants will no longer receive the pollination they require, and
will die out, without those plants, many herbivores will die out, without herbivores to eat, the carnivores will die out. The cycle continues until most creatures on Earth will have died out.

Why are honeybees on Earth dying?

What can we do to prevent a cataclysmic event such as the extinction of honey bees?

Do we need to start farming with less pesticides?

Let's talk about that.

- Sunday the 24th of July

- Gambling addiction in Japan vs. the rest of the world -

Walk down any main street in Kyoto, and you'll see at least one pachinko parlour.

Go to any arcade(ゲームセンター) and you'll find medal-games for gambling in medals.

Even on Otesuji there are 2 page and noisy pachinko parlours, and if you go west from here, there are other giant, mega-pachinko centres that a multiple stories high!

Does Japan have a gambling problem?

Have you tried pachinko? If so, why? If you go regularly, have you ever made the money back that you spent?

If you compare the amount of pachinko/gambling places in Japan to places like Europe or New Zealand, I can tell you right now, that the amount of casinos are much much fewer than Japan has.